Senior Software Engineer (Python, AI ML Engineer)

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to startCaring. Connecting. Growing together.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, test, and deploy AI-powered solutions, including Generative AI, LLM, NLP, and intelligent automation capabilities
• Build and maintain AI applications, APIs, prompts, agents, and orchestration workflows using enterprise-approved AI platforms
• Collaborate with product owners, business stakeholders, architects, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into AI-driven solutions
• Develop and optimize prompt engineering, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), vector search, and knowledge retrieval capabilities
• Create scalable data pipelines for AI model training, inference, monitoring, and continuous improvement
• Integrate AI services with existing enterprise applications, web services, databases, and cloud platforms
• Perform AI model evaluation, testing, validation, and tuning to improve accuracy, performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
• Implement responsible AI practices, including security, privacy, fairness, explainability, and governance requirements
• Monitor production AI solutions, identify performance issues, and implement corrective actions
• Document technical designs, architecture decisions, operating procedures, and best practices
• Stay current on emerging AI technologies, frameworks, models, and engineering practices and recommend innovative solutions
• Participate in code reviews, DevOps processes, CI/CD automation, and agile delivery ceremonies
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

• Graduate degree or equivalent experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• 3+ years of software engineering experience in Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages
• 2+ years of hands-on experience building AI, ML, Generative AI, or LLM-based applications
• Experience with modern AI frameworks such as LangChain, Semantic Kernel, LangGraph, CrewAI, or equivalent
• Experience integrating AI services from Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or similar platforms
• Experience with REST APIs, microservices, cloud-native development, and container technologies
• Knowledge of prompt engineering, RAG architecture, embeddings, vector databases, and AI evaluation techniques
• Solid understanding of software engineering fundamentals, design patterns, testing, and secure coding practices
• Experience using Git, GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps practices
• Proven solid analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills
• Proven excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone-of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income-deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.